Insanity: It Runs In The Family
by MaxRide05
Summary: They taunted her. They jeered at her. But if they knew who she was related to... They wouldn't be taunting her. They would be running away screaming. OotP compliant


**Disclaimer: I do not own HP. JKR does.**

Insanity; It Runs In The Family

What had she done to them to deserve this?

A question that always found its way to Luna Morgana Lovegood's mind. Especially at that very moment as her knees slid against the cold, stone floor of Hogwarts.

Nothing; that was the answer.

Her books fluttered to the floor around her, her inkwells smashed to the floor; spraying her and the floor with deep black liquid. The loud, raucous laughter of her peers echoed in her head as the chant began;

"_Loony, Loony Lovegood."_

Rather ingenious that lot. Really.

Unknown to them her nose wrinkled and her pale lips curled slightly (things like that happened often enough that she was able to hide her displeasure at being treated that way) before her face set in her recognizable dreamy, vague expression. She stood gracefully, gathered her things and left, ignoring their pitiful attempts to make her trip up again.

But she knew… she just knew that if they'd had any idea - _any_ idea at all - of who she was related to, they wouldn't be taunting her. They'd be running away screaming.

And that was why she (along-side her father) kept her late mothers' identity a secret. She had enough hard-ship already what with the pressures of society demanding normality (though truth be told Luna had never known normality in all her life) without being feared and looked down on by the wizarding world -or at least the side of the Light.

It was not that she was ashamed of her heritage; (far from it) it was just better this way.

A few months later a secret defence group was formed; the DA they called themselves. It seemed…interesting.

So she joined. It wasn't as if she wouldn't know what was being taught already but it would be a way to make friends. Or so she'd foolishly thought.

Her reputation as a crazy fool was permanent, so she was alone again.

Alone in a room full of people. A very unwelcome feeling indeed.

Not one of the members of the self-proclaimed DA spoke to her unless it was necessary.

Except Harry but those times were few yet very welcome.

(Though Luna hadn't missed the less than pleased look that crossed Ginerva Weasley's face whenever that happened. She was a rather spoilt girl, Luna remembered from her childhood, as the only girl to be born to the Weasley family for generations. She also - like all pure-blood young girls - had a crush on Harry Potter, saviour of the Wizarding world. It was all rather silly if you asked Luna (which no one did) because Harry had only been one when it had happened. And he'd lost his parents too, so it was also quite sad though it seemed none but Luna, her father, Harry and his parent's old friends thought so.)

But even though they never spoke to her, they still asked why she was there in rather loud, impolite tones. Even though Luna hadn't been brought up in a way most would call normal, she had still been brought up to be polite. And she knew impoliteness when she saw it (especially as it was mostly directed towards her and her father).

It was a regular day at the weekend when her dark brown owl, Artemis hovered in front of her face, two newspapers tied to her left leg. Smiling, Luna reached up, stroked her owl with one hand, and removed the newspapers with the other.

"Thank you, Artemis," She whispered, ignoring a snotty-looking, dark-haired third year next to her - but more than an arm's length away - who had flicked a piece of sausage at her feathered friend. Artemis however didn't; her feathers ruffled haughtily.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Luna said dreamily as the same third year paused in mid-flick to sneer at her.

"What did you say, Loony?"

Moments later, Artemis gave a screech - almost like a battle cry - before diving at the boy who gave a yell and tried to swat her away.

Her fellow Ravens laughed at the sight before them.

Luna held out her arm and called, "Artemis."

Her owl flew away from the cowering boy and landed gracefully on her mistress' arm.

"I said, I wouldn't do that if I were you," Luna said to the boy who took one look at her owl before running out of the great hall.

Luna smiled at Artemis before the owl hooted and took off.

Luna reached for her fresh edition of the Quibbler and put that in her satchel before reaching for the Daily Prophet only to have Michael Corner - who'd been passing her on his way out - snatch it up and hold it out of her grasp.

"I'd like that back thank you very much," She said calmly as she held out her hand, palm up. Corner stopped, turned around, and walked towards her slowly. He smirked as he stopped in front of her - if she'd wanted to she could have reached out and snatched it back -but she didn't.

"Well, you'll be disappointed won't you, Loony?" He said, smugly as his friends gathered behind him.

Luna raised an eyebrow (not really caring how out of place it was for her 'Loony' persona), "And why is that?"

His snide voice reached her ears, "Cos you're not having it back, you crazy-"

"Corner," Luna glanced in front of her to see a tall sixth year, Arthur MacDougal glaring at Corner from where he stood at the opposite side of the Ravenclaw table, "Give Lovegood's newspaper back to her."

He'd called her Lovegood; few students had ever done that.

The pale, slender sixth year's sandy blonde hair - that seemed to form a halo in the sun's light - fell into his narrowed dark chocolate eyes. His lips pursed as he waited for Corner to return Luna's newspaper.

Corner stepped before her and shoved the newspaper into her outstretched hand, but not before casting Arthur a nervous look. He and his friends then left the great hall, casting both Luna and Arthur curious, almost fear-ridden looks.

Luna knew why they had done that; it wasn't as if Arthur himself had had anything to do with it - he wasn't on the Quidditch team, he wasn't popular, he wasn't even a Prefect. No, it was because of Arthur's family. The MacDougal's were as close to wizarding royalty that Scotland could get. They were Grey but rather powerful as well, though they kept to themselves. And they were Ravenclaw's heirs, so it was most likely a given that they were sorted into their ancestor's house.

Luna said a quick 'thank you' to Arthur, not even bothering to say that he hadn't had to do that as he was the type to do what he pleased and he was questioned by no one. Because of his family.

"It was no problem," Arthur said in a low, smooth voice that she could barely hear, "Luna."

She raised an eyebrow, her expression one of curiosity, "You just called me Luna."

He smirked slightly, "So I did," And then he motioned to the empty seat opposite her, "May I?"

Luna nodded. "Most people call me Loony," She said with a blank voice.

"I know," He answered, his dark eyes never wavering from her face.

They continued to stare at each other before Luna smiled at him and opened her copy of the Daily Prophet. He did the same with his own copy which Luna hadn't noticed before then.

The headline of the newspapers sent waves of shock throughout her body. She was vaguely aware of a pale and shaking Neville Longbottom leaving the hall. She sympathised with the shy Gryffindor.

She knew about his parents.

Aurors, who had fought against the Dark Lord. She remembered being in St Mungo's, and running into a plump, round-faced boy not much older than herself on the Permanent Patients' Mentality Ward. Just moments before the encounter, she'd witnessing her mother take her final breath.

But back to the point…

There had been a break-out in Azkaban.

And among them were her uncles and aunt.

The Lestrange's.

**EDIT: I improved this one-shot as I noticed some errors (I'm only human after all). But they're fixed now.**

**To anyone wondering about my other fics plz know that I'm trying to write chapters but school's quite hectic -I have exams...**

**But I'll try my hardest to update; see my profile for any news if you're awaiting updates as I'll post any news on there.**


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